Chapter Thirty – Hunger and Shadows

The hollow reeked of smoke, sweat, and blood, but it had become their sanctuary — their battlefield, their altar. Outside, the marsh whispered like something alive, shifting with every cold breath of wind. The moon hung low through the cracks in the broken ceiling, casting silver veins of light across the ruined stone. The last remnants of the earlier battle smoldered at the edges — scorch marks, shattered roots, and the faint smell of ozone where Selene’s magic had split the air.

Inside, however, the heat coiled thick and heavy.

Selene’s body still trembled from the storm of Rowan’s raw hunger and Lucien’s velvet precision, her breath unsteady, her skin glowing faintly from the bond’s persistent hum. Sweat clung to her neck. Her palms sparked with the lingering afterglow of magic she had not meant to summon. Every nerve felt too alive — stretched thin between pleasure, fear, and something much more dangerous.

But the